Episode #250: It''s A DVD Reality In A Downloadable World

I believe we need one final semi-real pic of Autumn in Connecticut until everything goes all the way to pot and becomes winter.

A few posts ago I touched upon how I'm currently expanding my c.d. collection by dipping my toes into the world of gently used music. This time around I plan to touch upon my nascent  (like I have exactly five dvds) DVD collection and how I'm doing it on the frugal end of the spectrum (i.e. gently used)

Presently, I have extremely eclectic tastes in movies, like none of that MCU or blockbuster stuff ever crosses my field of vision. Instead, I go for things like the odd action/adventure, noir, dark fantasy and the odd drama.

Note: roughly 95% of the movies that I like were originally discovered on the various sub channels of Starz, Showtime, HBO and Encore. You'd be amazed at the amount of quirky movies that no one cares about anymore on those channels.

For example, prior to adding to my collection with some used DVDs, I have the following films in my collection:

1. Drive Angry, featuring Nicholas Cage and Amber Heard: This is mostly a violent religious fantasy film, with Nicholas Cage portraying a man (John Milton) who escapes from Hell to rescue his granddaughter. The movie itself, at least that I can tell, is steeped in concepts of Hell, Satan and Redemption among other things. Believe it or not, most people give this move a 3/5 star rating.
2. 30th Anniversary collection of SchoolHouse Rock!: No further explanation needed (I also have the complete box set of the same).
3. Byzantium, featuring Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan: one of the better vampire films that came out of the early 2010s. Highly recommend it as this was compared to another excellent vampire film called Let The Right One In (watch either the original version in Norwegian with subtitles, or a very excellent American remake that takes place in Minnesota. Don't bother with the dubbed version).
4. The 13th Warrior, featuring Antonio Banderas: A very good film, in my opinion, that's set in the first millennia in the vast Nordic wastelands. To me, it feels like they drew on the old Icelandic saga of Beowulf to create this movie.

This is the extent of my very eclectic movie collection. I love movies that are mostly fantasy based but cover topics that intrigue me both as a writer and a reader, but as you can see, the collection is very tiny. The main reason is one that is always the major bugaboo when it comes to pursuing something that we like: money. 

I've always balked at paying high prices for movies (those mentioned above, except the boxed set, were in the $15-$20 range), and completely dismissed purchasing downloadable movies. I also wasn't too much of a fan of purchasing used movies, because for me, it was either new or nothing. But during this year, I softened my opposition to used movies when I started finding some faves in the used DVD selection at my public library. I was also re-introduced to the world of quality used merchandise when I had visited the Savers store (an upscale Salvation Army/Goodwill used good store) when I had decided to donate clothes that no longer fit me.

Another note: during my initial visit to that store, they had two high end sound/mixing boards for sale dirt cheap.

So in the past month, I decided to resume adding to my DVD collection by purchasing gently used DVDs of movies that I personally enjoyed throughout the decades. Here, in no particular order of importance, are the latest additions to my collection.

1. Luck # Slevin, featuring Josh Hartnett, Lucy Lui, Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman and Bruce Willis: A very excellent NY based crime drama centered around a fixed horse race and revenge. What drew me to this movie was that it starred Josh Harnett, as at the time I was really into a Showtime limited series called The Penny Dreadful. If you like Victorian era drama centered around horror/fantasy, you'll love that series.
2. The Boondock Saints, featuring Willem Dafoe, Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus: Another excellent crime drama movie about two brothers who believe that God choose them to rid the world of evil piqued my curiosity the multiple times that I had watched it. 
3. Reservoir Dogs, directed by Quentin Tarrentino: This was a movie that I had searched out after watching Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill. Another excellent thought provoking film by Tarrentino, this time about a heist that goes awry.
4. Eastern Promises, featuring Vigoo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassell: I stumbled across this one sometime after watching Vigoo Mortensen in a previous crime drama film called A History of Violence (the opening sequence to that movie is not for the faint of heart, as it is quite disturbing). Viggo plays a cop who infiltrates the Russian Mafia, who runs into a nurse (Naomi Watts) who has possession of a baby and an incriminating diary that the late teen/young adult mother wrote about how she became pregnant.
5. Snatch, featuring, among others, Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Dennis Farina and Benicio Del Torio. A very dark crime farce featuring the underground fight game and a very large diamond. This was a critically acclaimed follow-up to director Guy Ritchies debut of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Highly recommend both the movie and soundtrack.
6. 21 Grams, featuring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro. This was another movie that I had stumbled across during my movie channel surfing days. A quality suspense/thriller/vengeance movie that I highly recommend. Say what you want about Sean Penn's politics, but the man has grown way beyond his Jeff Spicolli character from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" as an actor.
7. Rounders, featuring Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich. I would say that this a crime drama of sorts that centers around illegal card gambling. This was another movie that I had stumbled across, and one that I highly recommend.

Like I stated earlier, I have very eclectic tastes in movies, and except for the SchoolHouse Rock! collection, all R-rated. I can unequivocally state that there are PG and PG-13 movies that I do like and want to add to my collection, but those are mostly rooted in the decades from 1940 through the mid-to-late 1980s.

I hope you've enjoyed this snapshot of what I enjoy for video entertainment and here's wishing a fantastic Thanksgiving holiday for you and yours.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #249: Luddite(ing) My Way Through Life

Our legendary Oreo stylin', profilin' and modelin' a Hollweenie sweater for the Autumn/Winter season. Even at his ripe old age of 12, he's still got the energy to annoy everyone inside and outside the house.

No writing update to give this week, as everything is in a bit of flux, due to the dawning realization that extending a well thought out plan is a necessary evil. So I thought for this week's post, I delve into the Luddite history of myself.

note: I was going to link to a Wiki article about Luddites, but found this very odd one about Neo-Luddism instead.

So I'm one of those very strange fellows who did not immediately embrace the technology of today, but simply hung onto to the tried and true technology of yesterday. For example, I didn't start using computers until my first state job in 1996 (for those of you keeping track, that means I was 31 when I was dragged kicking and screaming to modern tech), which if you're curious, that was when M$ 6.0 was the O/S of choice.

Now because of this very late exposure to modern technology (remember this was when cellphones were just starting to become affordably to the masses), coupled with my normal reticence to new technology, I never really suffered from the original T.D.S (that's Technology Derangement Syndrome). I was quite happy with the computer technology I was using at the time (small floppy disks); the old music technology of vinyl and cassette (this was a bad idea in the long run, but yanno, 20/20); and not being connected to cellphones.

So I merrily skipped my way through life blissfully unconcerned about the rapidly evolving technological landscape. Because my mindset was "if ain't broke, why fix it", I often had to be dragged kicking, screaming and crying to use new technology because my old technology was rapidly becoming obsolete.

One of those aforementioned technologies was cellphones. For the past 22+ years, I've owned exactly 7 cell/smartphones: Sanyo (2), Samsung, Nokia, LG and Motorola (2). Each time I was dragged kicking and screaming to buy/upgrade my phone, because again, if it ain't broke....but instead it was the cellular carriers that broke (networks), discontinued (LG) or obsolete O/S that forced my hand. And I'm sure when O/S 11 for Android becomes obsolete, I'll be dragged kicking and screaming to upgrade my phone.

And for the record, I'm only lightly tethered to my phone via podcast apps, music apps and MLB app. I choose not to have socialized media beyond YouTube on my phone, and the amount of minutes spent per month talking/texting would probably equal two days max for the majority of my readers.

I'm also pretty much a major league caliber Luddite when it comes to finances. I do online banking only to print out my monthly statements or transfer money to a semi-active savings account (saves on monthly fees). I do money orders for all but three of my monthly bills, only because I never liked it when banks switched to automatic withdrawals the moment a check crossed their desk nor do I really trust any of the myriad of businesses I deal with to process EFTs properly.

In regards to the audio and video portion of my life, I have long accepted that CD's are here to stay and that I will never download music (my personal belief is that it's way too east to lose access to a download than it is for a physical copy). I still do vinyl and moved on quite nicely to DVDs. Fun thing about DVD's is that I can build a personalized collection simply by purchasing them used. Why drop $10+ on a DVD when you can purchase used for less than $4?

In general, I can state with a degree of certainty that I will always be a mix of Ludditism and Modernism when it comes to technology (I had a old microwave that used a dial for temperature and a dial for time. overall it lasted about two decades), if only because old technology, so long as it isn't connected to the more destructive parts of the World Wide Web, is still quite functional.

Have a fantastic week, and remember, to make it through your day, just channel your inner Gloria Gaynor.

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #248: The Power Of Persuasion Can Be Insidious Indeed

For those of you who enjoy the Elf ruling the world from a Shelf, I bring you his cereal. Sugar Is Good Food.

The title of today's post can mean a multitude of things. For those of you who have a genuine sense of humor, you'll immediately get the gist. For everyone else, today's post is about how the arts & entertainment sector can surreptitiously remove your hard earned dollar from your locked wallet without you being the wiser.

But first, a writing update that features, rather annoyingly, a setback. My current saga, conveniently titled here as Hot Mess, has been forced to expand to one more volume. Between last week's post and the writing of this post, I've been forced to concede that in order to bring everything to a proper conclusion (including uniformity of content), I need to drift into one more volume. This pain is still fresh, and it's something I will elaborate on in a future post. 

With that out of the way, let's jump to the topic at hand: persuasion in the arts & entertainment field, with a specific look to books.

Oddly enough, this topic came to me in a roundabout way. I was settling down with a gently used book that I had purchased from my public library a few weeks ago {"Drunk" } and had posted a picture of here boasting how you can find a non-fiction book about any topic under the sun, and one of the main reasons why I had acquired the book were the jacket blurbs that were touting the praises on how good this book is.

Within the first thirty pages, this book performed a complete 180 from what it outwardly presented itself to be. Outwardly, it presented a picture of a fun-filled historical romp through the millennia about drinking. Inwardly, it presented a detailed picture of social/behavioral sciences indicative of what the various people of the world did when it came to producing/consuming/regulating fermented drink. All well and good, but this book was more suited for a college level social sciences course than as a book for the masses {aka literary non-fiction}.

Usually I've been pretty good about weeding out reading material that says one thing on the cover but says something completely different on the inside, but this time, I fell for the hype without researching to see if the hype lived up to the product. As the old saying goes, fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, I'm just a gullible kind of guy {modern twist, so sue me}.

I'm often seeing this more and more when it comes to browsing both the new book selections at B&N or the gently used book selection at my public library. Lots of hype that I take with a large boulder of rock salt because why would a particular author have (at least with non-fiction) have so much hype about their book that contains a topic more suited for pop culture as opposed to not.

Now, I have seen some good hype geared towards books in certain non-fiction genres where the content ultimately lives up to/exceeds the hype (e.g. certain historical events/periods, sports and true crime), at least in my personal opinion. But I've also been the victim of where the hype thoroughly masqueraded the dullness/zoning out capabilities of the book itself (again, looking at you the literary genre).

The reality of good hype/bad product is that the person who created the perceived bad product will almost never have the opportunity to win that particular reader back. Reputation is everything in the literary world, and unless you're someone who has churned out quality product and can get away with the occasional lemon, one perceived bad tome is very hard to recover from.

Sad to say, I only purchase books based on the reputation of a writer who I have either interacted with personally, or peripherally in another format (e.g. a podcast host who writes a book in their particular field of knowledge). For general reading, the public library remains my go-to source of material.

So my friends, have you fallen victim to this insidious issue when it comes to the written word? 

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #247: A Little Coagulation Makes Everything Gel

While yes, this picture is...wait for it...nearly 17 years old, I'm reposting it not so much as it's a cute picture of my daughter but the store that's in the background next to Jo-Ann Fabric (in bankruptcy I believe), Big Lots, which has closed/is closing over 350 stores, including the one pictured, as it works it way through bankruptcy. Welcome to the new retail world of 2024.

Today's post, while writing related, won't be that heavily skewered towards the nuts and bolts of my current project {e.g. page/chapter/word count}, but like looking for an opinion on a particular part of a book that people have lots of opinions about.

Epilogues.

As loosely defined, an epilogue is a coda/summation that brings to a satisfactory conclusion to what you've just read/heard/seen. It's quite prevalent in books, of all genres, when you want to shine a light on what might've possibly happened to your characters after your story has wrapped up.

In my particular instance, because I have invested so much time/energy on the lives of all my main characters, giving them nuanced motives in pursuing/completing/not completing a particular task, that I sincerely do not think that trying to WRAP UP ALL OF THOSE PLOT POINTS in one final penultimate chapter will be fair to the readers (or myself for that matter) who invested so much time with those characters. 

Just to give you a basic idea of what I'm looking at that must have A RESOLUTION of some type, and this doesn't include the actual ending, which I'm still trying to resolve to my satisfaction.

1. A sentient being that was "killed" off in book #3, is deciding whether or not to reincarnate and become a sentient to another, or stay with her current host, who is serving penance for causing her to die to begin with.
2. Two cousins who are trying to successfully complete their last assignment, which will allow them to regain control of their lives AND find a new home/host in which to restart their lives with.
3. A swerve in which one protag/antag must decide on which person who should take delivery of her hostage, with each person having their own different outcomes.
4. A secondary swerve involving the protag/antag mentioned above, which culminates in the gentle reassignment of the remaining four members of her family conclave.
5. I have two immortals, one who is now host to a sentient being, who are in charge of making sure that the hostage is being delivered on time.
6. The two sisters who ultimately betrayed their Queen for the Queen who wants the man in question.

Those are the main points that indirectly involve the actual ending as it applies to the pursuing/pursued side of this conflict. The following points that directly involve the actual ending as it applies to the receiving side.

1. I have a lady-in-waiting who has recently become a host to a person who was reincarnated into a sentient being and is recovering from a brutal multi-faceted assault from the next bullet point.
2. The renegade from the conclave that is the actual power behind the throne who is looking to perform his own usurpation.
3. The Queen who was the catalyst for this entire story. Does she win in the end? Does she lose in the end? Does she break even in the end?
4. The Queen who was the pursuer for the entire story. Does she win in the end? Does she lose in the end? Does she break even? In regards to a couple points mentioned above, does she win or lose?
5. The Milady, who was the hostage in question's first wife, what does she win in the end? How does her life continue afterwards?

Since all of these points have to be concluded to everyone's satisfaction, and there are many intertwined points at stake here, I guess the question now pivots to this: should I have two separate epilogues involved for both sides?

Funnily enough, writing this blog post has allowed me to look at my entire series with a fresh set of eyes, and in order to do all of the intertwined/interconnected plot points, both large and small, I really do need to write two distinct epilogues in order to properly close out this series.

But after reaching this very realistic possibility for this series, I've also come to the very realistic possibility of writing novellas/novelette as follow-ups to these particular characters. Note: these characters have been my entire world for the past 2 1/4 years, so I can truthfully say that I've grown quite attached to them.

Not sure if I've ever experienced something like this before, in that while trying to make a case for something, I ultimately convinced myself to make a major swerve into something else. But, while writing this blog post, I also came up with another idea for this series, which I will presently keep to myself until I can talk to others about it.

In any event, please enlighten me with your thoughts about epilogues in general or a proposed dual epilogue ending. Have a fantastic week everybody!

{c} 2024 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved